Over January-November, China produced 3.67 billion tonnes of raw coal for all utilisation, or up 4.2% on year, among which November output increased 4.6% on year to 370.8 million tonnes, while over the first 11 months, the country’s coke output declined 1.6% on year to 428.4 million tonnes with November volume down 17.4% on year to 33.9 million tonnes, according to the release by the country’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on December 15.
The nationwide raw coal output for November also refreshed the year’s high, or up 3.9% on month, and last month, China’s daily raw coal production averaged 12.4 million tonnes, up more substantially by 7.3% on month, Mysteel Global calculated, which was mainly due to Beijing’s efforts to boost domestic coal production to match the growing demand during the winter months.
With rises in both domestic supply and coal imports in November, as reported earlier, China’s thermal coal prices continued to soften last month, as suggested by NBS’ price tracking, and the country’s composite trading price of the 5,500 kcal/kg thermal coal in Qinhuangdao port, North China’s Hebei, for example, fell to Yuan 986/tonne ($155/t), down by Yuan 216/t from October 29.
In contrast to the steady growth in the country’s coal output, China’s coke production for November, touched a new low for 2021 after having declined on month for the third month by 5.9%, mainly impacted by shrinking demand from steelmakers on lower steel output and curbing on coking because of the winter restriction over November-March 2022 and emergency measures triggered by poor air quality, Mysteel Global calculated.
Last month, China’s pig iron production fell 16.6% on year or down 2.1% on month to 61.7 million tonnes, according to the NBS data, and steelworks in China’s core steelmaking hubs succeeded cutting their coke procurement prices Yuan 1,600/t in eight rounds throughout November, forcing some domestic coking plants to cut production on losses, as reported.
Source: Mysteel
